Meeting celebrities in random places

I took the family up to TO to visit Canada's Wonderland amusent park (first time there since my honeymoon 17 years ago). Around 9:30 pm standing in line for a smaller coaster and Daniel Negraenu and his model girlfriend get in line behind us. I said hello and told him I'm a fan and then left him alone. He was pleasant and would have been willing to chat I think but I wanted to be considerate and leave him alone. Later I checked his twitter feed and he jokingly I think complained about not being able to purchase VIP front of the line passes.

Celebs are not a big deal to me - when I started dating my wife answering the home phone at her parents house could have any number of NFL stars or coaches on the other end and I did meet many of them. This was just such a random occurrence. Anyone else meet a celeb in a random place?

Jack Nicholson and Timothy Hutton at Johnny's Bar & Grill in Lawrence, Kansas at 7:30 am back in the early 80s. The bar opened early for the 3rd shifters at a local mill. Go figure.

Not really random places, but I have caddied for or with a fair few.

I met Los Del Rio in a restaurant in Spain...

HEY MACARENA!

While waiting to cross the street, Dee Snider drove by--in his high-top conversion van. Ah, I miss Long Island.

And even more metal: While browsing the racks at Tower Records, I looked over and saw Scott Ian doing the same thing.

I interned at a triple-A radio station in Philadelphia, and they used to have artists in for interviews and stuff like that all the time, big names, too. I find that most people are cool as hell to talk to as long as you don't act like a starstruck moron and you treat them like human beings.

No clue who Daniel Negraenu is.

In the 80s, I worked at a hobby shop. The week following the Indy 500 would be fun. I've sold German trains to Rick Mears, die-cast cars to Arie Luyendyk, model kits to Danny Sullivan, and various stuff to other drivers, Mario, Al Jr, etc.

Music related, I've had beers with the guys of FireHouse several times.

I met Fred Haise of Apollo 13 fame. Great guy, and a killer at Putt Putt.

I ran into Bill Murray at an antiques shop here in Charleston. Kind of a low key guy. Given his acting, I expected him to be gregarious and loud. Quite the opposite in fact. Drives a Chrysler convertible of some sort. Not exactly what you would expect.

Another one I just remembered. While killing time in L.A. (back when I had time to kill), I'm pretty sure I saw Linda Hamilton at a coffee shop. If it wasn't her, whoever it was had the same pouty look. I didn't see any HKs nearby, though.

I ran into Prince at the local ice cream parlor once. I was walking out as he pulled up on his purple motorcycle with a super hot female companion.

i chatted with gene roddenberrys wife for about 10 mins once at a con for some reson and she was sighing some pics for something else and it did not stirke me for most of that time who she was. the women who played the voice of the computers and denians troys mom on next gen.

i meet member so the zine staff a few times in person...

pinchvalve wrote: No clue who Daniel Negraenu is.

Famous pro poker player.

Met James Brown in an elevator in a hotel in Richmond 25 years or so ago. Once filled a prescription for James Taylor. Met Buddy Hackett years ago when he was at the Dook Rice Clinic.

Oh, I've met a half dozen famous bluegrass guys.

I ran into jack kavorkian at a coffee shop years ago. Chatted with him a while.

Joey

I literally ran into Dave Chappelle in a Best Buy once, I don't remember which department... I see him riding/driving around from time to time. He's riding one of these lately Well, maybe not that model but some kind of Royal-Enfield, it looks pretty nice up close.

I wrenched on Vince Crestejos (Lord Yu on Stargate) MR-2 and 1982 Celica.

Autocrossed with him too.

Shawn

I am not surprised that there are a lot of celebrities that I have no idea who they are.

How about Rick Flair in an elevator in a Marriott?

Had a nice talk with Jim Downing at the Mitty, but didn't realize who he was for the first few minutes.

I have hung out with the Flyers quite a few times as they are my favorite sports team, and my friends and I might try to schedule our next trip to Vegas during the NHL awards to try and meet some of them at clubs and stuff.

Most are pretty nice, but the issues and concerns of a professional athlete are on different levels than normal folk.

Bumped into the mallet weilding comedian Gallager on campus. Total Jerk.

Chatted with Frank Black 20 or 30 times in line at the liquor store over the years before I realized who he was. I went to the Doolittle aniversary show and he waved at me from stage and I was like....oh crap, thats why he seemed familiar!

Kurt Cobain threw a punch at me because I yelled at his girlfriend for playing "Come on Eileen" on the jukebox in the middle of my bands set. Not sure if it was courtney love. This was just after they signed to the majors and before "Teen Spirit" happened.

In the late 80's and early 90's I volunteered at the local community center for the performing arts and given our proximity to Seattle I did stage setup for pretty much every grunge band before they were famous. Mudhoney, soundgarden and nirvana were like a bi-monthly thing. I got to know most of them by name, hence the familiarity with Cobain and probably why he tried to hit me.

Did a lot of chatting with actual good bands like nomeansno, fugazi, superchunk, social distortion, sonic youth.

On september 10th 2001 I took Robbie Fulks and John Doe to a Taqueria for dinner. Robbie then danced with my wife while John Doe opened the show and John drank with me while Robbie played. I jammed iwith Wayne the train Hancock for 2 hours in the vintage guitar shop in town. He had an affinity for low end 40's and 50's guitars. Flat tops with trapeze tailpieces and really likes his weed.

Quite a few more but all musicians except for Christian Hosoi but then again I was putting his band up for the night when they came through town.

Most celebs I have seen/talked to are pretty chill. Like Twin_Cam said, just don't act like some dumbass fanboi. Living in Southern Cal my whole life has given me a bit of an advantage, tho...

Chris Tucker was cool. I met him while doing some work at a charity fundraiser. This was while he was shooting the second Rush Hour movie. I talked to him for about 10 min. He was pretty funny in person, too.

I saw Kurt Russel at a mall around the holidays. That guy is SHORT.

If you are a car nut and live in LA, you have probably met Jay Leno. He is super cool and always willing to chat with fellow gearheads.